ABB Opens GIS Facility In Indonesia

ABB has built a high voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) manufacturing facility in Tangerang, Banten. The facility which was inaugurated by Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto during its opening, is projected to have 170 kilovolts of gas-fueled electrical panels that will be utilised to distribute electricity from power plants to end users such as factories, housing complexes and commercial areas in order to feed increasing demands for power.

As mentioned by Minister Airlangga Hartarto during his inauguration speech, GIS demand in Indonesia is projected to increase to 150 sets annually as the country works to attain a power capacity of 35 gigawatts and 46,000 kilometers of network transmission by 2019. Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s power grids division, has also said, “during the early stages of operation, the plant is expected to fulfill around a third of Indonesia’s GIS demand” and it is expected to increase its capacity by around 6.9 percent per year, with the potential to have its products exported to meet global demand.

Additionally, through this facility, ABB will not only help to create jobs and contribute to Indonesia’s FDI, the company could also help to sustain local auxiliary industries as a 2012 legislation has mandated that all power infrastructure developments in the country has to source a portion of its components locally. This facility in Tangerang is the fourth plant in Indonesia that ABB has opened in the past three years as part of a US$30 million investment plan and its contains approximately 25 percent local content for its components. This exceeds local government requirements of at least 14.3 percent local content for high voltage GIS facilities. Minister Airlangga Hartarto, has commented that, “by establishing this plant here in Indonesia, ABB is enabling the local manufacturing industry to contribute more to the national GIS demand.”

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